Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Nightcrawler is one of my top 3 X-Men characters. I've loved the character's attitude, his development over the years and the over all feel he brings to each team he's been on. A huge part of his character growth was his time as the leader of Excalibur. I wasn't reading that book as it came out in the 80's and 90's but I've since gone back and absolutely love that run with Alan Davis.

This costume was a pretty drastic departure from his "classic" look and especially with the buzz cut, man Nightcrawler just looked more serious.

He had always been a "swashbuckler" type of character, and even referenced it quite a few times how much he enjoyed that type of character and fighting style. Adding a sword to his character was a blast to see, so I definitely had to add that to this sketch.

Often when I do sketches I use it as an opportunity to try new techniques in inking. New textures, effects, or rendering methods. Here I happened across a new way to indicate black smoke from an Art Adams sketch I had seen and loved that look for Nightcrawler's Bamf effect. It's a bit time consuming, but a fun effect as black and white art.

I have a new set of art books titled- " Robert ATKINS Art: Declassified" They are 60 pages each, full of the black and white sketches that you've seen on my blog these last few years.

I have 3 volumes. Vol. 1 is strictly GI JOE artwork, Vol 2 is MARVEL Comics Characters (X-Men, Avengers, SPIDERMAN, Etc...) and Vol. 3 is DC Comics characters (SUPERMAN, BATMAN, JLA, etc..) These are for sale, you can simply email me directly and payment is taken through paypal. They are $10 each and $5 flat rate shipping for 1 or all 3. I have these available at the conventions I set up at, but if you can't make the show, you can purchase them through my blog as well. You can email me if you need more details.

Monday, January 5, 2015

This was a commission from my good friend Darrell Taylor (Taylor Network Podcasts) for our friend, writer and author Tom King. He co-writes the comic Grayson for DC Comics. This sketch was a Christmas present for him. I didn't post it earlier because I was still in the middle of my Joe-A-Day sketches.

Dick Grayson/Nightwing is my absolute favorite DC Character! Don't get me wrong, I love a lot of the other characters too. Over all I prefer the heroes that don't have massive powers and abilities. They're skilled humans who train, push themselves to the limit for the greater good of others. Batman is a perfect example of this, and I like Batman. But he's almost too good at it. What I liked most about Nightwing is that we've gotten a chance to see him grow as a character and hero. From the first Robin, to Nightwing, and now simply Grayson (secret agent) we've seen him fail and get up, become better, fail and get up, etc... Now that's the kind of stuff I can relate to!

The sketch I did wasn't on a blank cover, I just put the title and names on there as a mock cover to see how it'd look.

I have a new set of art books titled- " Robert ATKINS Art: Declassified" They are 60 pages each, full of the black and white sketches that you've seen on my blog these last few years.

I have 3 volumes. Vol. 1 is strictly GI JOE artwork, Vol 2 is MARVEL Comics Characters (X-Men, Avengers, SPIDERMAN, Etc...) and Vol. 3 is DC Comics characters (SUPERMAN, BATMAN, JLA, etc..) These are for sale, you can simply email me directly and payment is taken through paypal. They are $10 each and $5 flat rate shipping for 1 or all 3. I have these available at the conventions I set up at, but if you can't make the show, you can purchase them through my blog as well. You can email me if you need more details.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

This was a commission I did while I was at the Malta Comic Expo last Nov. Again, finally getting around to cleaning up the scan I had. Man, what an experience that was! Everyone running and helping with that show did an amazing job for a first year con. I've never seen any group roll with the punches, adapt and implement coordination on the fly like they did. Every new show has a few growing pains, and trial and error. I've seen shows deal with it the following year and each year improve, but I've never seen it happen so abruptly day to day.

This sketch was for Andrew, one of the guys who helped me and my wife the most throughout the show. Great guy, and I was glad I got to fit this in while I was there. Another great opportunity at smaller shows is to get to know the other creators set up at the con. I got to meet and genuinely get to know some of my favorite artists like Yanick Paquette and Mahmud Asrar, and either meet or keep in touch with the writers who attended as well. Ron Marz, Mike Costa, Joe Harris and Darren O'Toole. As far as I know the show will be held next year as well, I'm looking forward to going again if at all possible.

I have a new set of art books titled- " Robert ATKINS Art: Declassified" They are 60 pages each, full of the black and white sketches that you've seen on my blog these last few years.

I have 3 volumes. Vol. 1 is strictly GI JOE artwork, Vol 2 is MARVEL Comics Characters (X-Men, Avengers, SPIDERMAN, Etc...) and Vol. 3 is DC Comics characters (SUPERMAN, BATMAN, JLA, etc..) These are for sale, you can simply email me directly and payment is taken through paypal. They are $10 each and $5 flat rate shipping for 1 or all 3. I have these available at the conventions I set up at, but if you can't make the show, you can purchase them through my blog as well. You can email me if you need more details.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Here are the colors to the Spiderman Commission I recently posted. Colors by Simon Gough, which of course anytime I have a Spiderman to color I'd go to this guy to do it. Literally his user name on about every website is "Spidermanfan".... so that's a no brainer.

I have a new set of art books titled- " Robert ATKINS Art: Declassified" They are 60 pages each, full of the black and white sketches that you've seen on my blog these last few years.

I have 3 volumes. Vol. 1 is strictly GI JOE artwork, Vol 2 is MARVEL Comics Characters (X-Men, Avengers, SPIDERMAN, Etc...) and Vol. 3 is DC Comics characters (SUPERMAN, BATMAN, JLA, etc..) These are for sale, you can simply email me directly and payment is taken through paypal. They are $10 each and $5 flat rate shipping for 1 or all 3. I have these available at the conventions I set up at, but if you can't make the show, you can purchase them through my blog as well. You can email me if you need more details.

Friday, January 2, 2015

This was a commission for my friend Eric Grubb back at Baltimore Comic Con. I finally got a chance to clean up the scans and get a good final image of it. Hopefully I can get Simon on the colors for this soon! I've always really enjoyed the giant robot genre of anime, and Robotech/Macross has been one of my favorites. This giant, tech robot kind of work isn't something I get to do very often, but actually I quite enjoy it. GI Joe/Transformers would be a dream book for me. Until then, I can be content with the occasional giant robot commission. I've finished a fun double page Transformers, and now Robotech commission both this year. All I need is for someone to request a giant Mobile Suit Gundam piece and I think I'd feel complete.

I have a new set of art books titled- " Robert ATKINS Art: Declassified" They are 60 pages each, full of the black and white sketches that you've seen on my blog these last few years.

I have 3 volumes. Vol. 1 is strictly GI JOE artwork, Vol 2 is MARVEL Comics Characters (X-Men, Avengers, SPIDERMAN, Etc...) and Vol. 3 is DC Comics characters (SUPERMAN, BATMAN, JLA, etc..) These are for sale, you can simply email me directly and payment is taken through paypal. They are $10 each and $5 flat rate shipping for 1 or all 3. I have these available at the conventions I set up at, but if you can't make the show, you can purchase them through my blog as well. You can email me if you need more details.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

So now that I've wrapped up my Joe-A-Day, I do have other commissions that were completed this last month. Making headway on my commission list! I'm still not open for new commissions, but at least I'm making progress. Here are the inks!

I have a new set of art books titled- " Robert ATKINS Art: Declassified" They are 60 pages each, full of the black and white sketches that you've seen on my blog these last few years.

I have 3 volumes. Vol. 1 is strictly GI JOE artwork, Vol 2 is MARVEL Comics Characters (X-Men, Avengers, SPIDERMAN, Etc...) and Vol. 3 is DC Comics characters (SUPERMAN, BATMAN, JLA, etc..) These are for sale, you can simply email me directly and payment is taken through paypal. They are $10 each and $5 flat rate shipping for 1 or all 3. I have these available at the conventions I set up at, but if you can't make the show, you can purchase them through my blog as well. You can email me if you need more details.

Thursday, December 25, 2014

OFFICIALLY wrapping up Joe-A-Day sketches for now. I know it's sad to see it go. I will be coming back to GI Joe characters this March, so it's only a month and a half hiatus. I have other commissions and projects to catch up on. I have plenty of Joe commissions still to do leading up to Joe Con in April.

This sketch was another of the Signature Series art plates for IDW Limited that I had Simon Gough color up for me. This was a chance to show how scrappy she can be. She's one tough lady, and rarely down for the count. I drew her all battered and having a rough day, but again with the colors it really comes to life!

I have a new set of art books titled- " Robert ATKINS Art: Declassified" They are 60 pages each, full of the black and white sketches that you've seen on my blog these last few years.

I have 3 volumes. Vol. 1 is strictly GI JOE artwork, Vol 2 is MARVEL Comics Characters (X-Men, Avengers, SPIDERMAN, Etc...) and Vol. 3 is DC Comics characters (SUPERMAN, BATMAN, JLA, etc..) These are for sale, you can simply email me directly and payment is taken through paypal. They are $10 each and $5 flat rate shipping for 1 or all 3. I have these available at the conventions I set up at, but if you can't make the show, you can purchase them through my blog as well. You can email me if you need more details.